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About Prof. A.W. Peet

Academic History

I was born at 323 ppm CO2 and grew up in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Awards

Affiliations

Local (UofT, St George campus)
Home base: Department of Physics
Cross-appointment (status-only): Department of Mathematics
College: Fellow of Trinity College
External institutions
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics: Affiliate, since its launch
Professional society memberships
Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP)
American Physical Society (APS)
Like my Ph.D. advisor, I do not seek membership in highly exclusive clubs like the Royal Society, for the same reason as Groucho Marx gave 70 years ago ;)

Research Interests

My research is in the general field of theoretical high-energy (subatomic) physics. Gravity is my favourite force, and over the years I have focused on recruiting black holes as a theoretical laboratory for investigating questions about quantum effects in systems with gravitational degrees of freedom. The theoretical toolkits I have made most use of in recent years include aspects of string theory as a theory of quantum gravity and AdS/CFT holography.

Research publications
All of my research publications have been available for free from arxiv.org and inspirehep.net since the day they were born.
EDI publication
Status of gender equity in physics in Canada (2017-2020), by Chitra Rangan, Melanie Campbell, Eamonn Corrigan, Shohini Ghose, Ania Kwiatkowski, A.W. Peet, & Samantha O’Neil, AIP Conf. Proc. 3040, 050007 (2023), doi.org/10.1063/5.0175736

Research Personnel

Current co-workers:
Michael Imseis (2022--)
Cedrick Perron (2022--)
[My next grad student intake will be in 2024-25]
Past grad students:
Emre Ozer (2020-22), Jesse Cresswell (2014-19), Thomas de Beer (2017-19), Ian Jardine (2012-2017), Daniel O'Keeffe (2010-2015), Maxim Emelin (2011-12), Ida G. Zadeh (2008-13), Roberto di Criscienzo (2007-8), Jon Ford (2005-9), Omid Saremi (2002-6), Geoffrey Potvin (2000-6).
Past postdocs:
Ian Jardine (2017-18), Zaq Carson (2016-7), Callum Quigley [NSERC funded] (2015-16), Benjamin A. Burrington [partly IPP funded] (2008-2012), Stefano Giusto (2006-7), Ashish Saxena (2004-7), David C. Page (2002-5), Martin Kruczenski (2001-3).

Classroom Teaching

Ever since I was a graduate student, I have really enjoyed classroom teaching and mentoring students formally and informally. Over the years, I have taught a wide variety of classes, from elementary first year undergraduate courses to advanced graduate courses. I am committed to open access and to accommodating students with disabilities, so my courses all feature online lecture notes, and have done since I started teaching at UofT.

For the academic year 2023-24, I will be teaching Relativity Theory I (PHY483/1483) and Quantum Field Theory II (PHY2404). Webpages for these will be fully on Quercus, UofT's courseware website.

Outreach

Bringing an appreciation of academic research to a wider audience is another academic activity I value a great deal. In the past three decades, I have given engaging talks about theoretical physics to audiences from third graders to ninety-plus year olds. I list myself in the UofT Blue Book of experts, and provide online archives of selected outreach talks for the lay public. See e.g. the slides and YouTube video for my most recent public lecture. I also keep a list of news media interviews.

My motivation to reach out is not just to boost my research, my field, and physics more generally, but also to exercise an academic obligation enshrined in the Education Act (1989) of my home country New Zealand: to be critic and conscience of society.

Equity/Diversity/Inclusivity/Accessibility

Since arriving at the University of Toronto, I have been involved in fostering inclusion of women in physics, at the departmental, university, national, and international level. From 2011-2014, I served on the APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP). From 2017-18, I chaired the CAP Committee to Encourage Women In Physics (CEWIP), recently renamed to the Division for Gender Equity in Physics (DGEP), and I currently serve on the CAP EDI Committee. I also sit on the NSERC EDI Committee. Since acquiring disabilities in 2003 pre-tenure, I have been involved in fostering inclusion of disabled university students and researchers (see e.g. a 2012 Editorial I wrote for the APS CSWP/COM Gazette). Since coming out as transgender in 2013, I have been involved in fostering inclusion of gender and sexual minorities on campus. I list myself on lgbtphysicists.org Out List and have spoken on a number of 2SLGBTIQ+ panels on campus and at physics conferences.